Management Team

Experienced Leaders. Proven Success.

Frank Robinson, President

Frank is the co-founder and president of SyncDev, and leads the Company’s professional services team.

Frank has contributed to the development of hundreds of products and services in 20 business and consumer market segments including business and consumer software, scientific instruments, semiconductors, financial services, and large airplanes for businesses. His clients have included Fortune 500 companies, growth-stage public companies, startups, and venture capital firms. Prior to SyncDev, Frank was VP of Sales & Marketing for Tracor Aviation. Prior to that he was a management consultant with KPMG’s predecessor, Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co.

Frank began his career with Tex Johnston, Inc. as a pilot and aeronautical engineer on a flying simulator for training airline pilots. At a sister company, Aero Spacelines, Inc., he was a flight-test engineer on the Super Guppy airplane which became the backbone of the Airbus Industries’ supply chain in Europe. The airplanes were technical successes but business failures, an early difficult experience that spawned Frank’s awareness of the need for a better development process which resulted years later in SyncDev.

Frank has a BA in physics and an MBA in finance from SUNY Buffalo. He resides in Santa Barbara, CA.

Jim Smith, President, Product Development

Jim is the co-founder, director, and manager of product development for SyncDev, Inc.

Jim came to the company first as a user of SyncDev Inc.’s predecessor (Frank H. Robinson, & Co., Inc.) service Market Validation at the Learning Company, Inc., producer of such software titles as of Reader Rabbit® and Math Rabbit®. Later he became a direct customer as founder of Personal News, Inc., an online data-service company for investors which he sold to Intuit, Inc. who bundled it into Quicken Deluxe.

Jim has worked extensively in brand-name consumer and business software products with such companies as Dow Jones, Autodesk, Macromedia, Adobe, and The Learning Company. He’s been associated with SyncDev for 20 years as a customer’s team-member, corporate client, SyncDev co-founder, product development manager, SyncDev coach, and angel investor.

Jim has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.